Re: Newbie help

["Chris Travers" <..hidden..>]

On 10/18/07, Del Miller <..hidden..> wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
> I got LSMB installed on a fresh/clean system and have played around a
> bit in a pristine environment.  I think some of my problems/issue may be
> with the configuration of my old system as the new one seems to behave a
> bit better.  I still have some questions regards the functioning of the
> Project/TimeCards.
>
> First off, is there any docs on the specifics of how projects/timecards
> work?   (the LSMB manual doesn't seem to cover much and I haven't found
> anything else out there)  I've managed to get one through the system but
> only by trial and error and as such I'm not really sure what I did to
> make that one work.

The manual was written basically as training material for a 16-hour
training course 1 1/2 years ago for SQL-Ledger.  While it has been
updated and expanded in a few ways, you are right that it needs more
information of this sort.

As a biasic overview:
Projects are optionally tied to customers.  They represent a discrete
set of work for accounting purposes.

Timecards are tied to projects, services, and customers.  They
represent an entry in what can be turned into a sales order/  After
review, and possibly adding parts, etc. the sales order can be
converted into an invoice.

I guess the best way to go would be for me to answer any specific
questions you have and try to use this as an opportunity to see what
needs to be added to the documentation.

>  Also, I have some questions regarding the internal
> process and what's possible to change -- perhaps those questions are
> more appropriate for the -devel list but I'll include the whole ball of
> wax below.
>
> Also, is there any code over-view that I could look at to see the layout
> of things?  I've done a bit of Perl programming in the past (I'm a bit
> rusty currently) and could easily tackle some of the items myself if I
> knew where to go look.  A cursory glance at the code tells me that there
> are some 'less than obvious' things lurking about. ;)
>
> My questions are these:
>
> Projects:
>     - If the project end date has passed, can I still post time cards
> against it?

You are not supposed to be able to post timecards for projects not
valid on the date of the timecard.  If this is happening it is a bug.

>     - Does the end date determine the Open/Closed status of a project?

Yes.

>     - Does the project have to be closed in order to generate the sales
> orders?

No.

>     - What would the impact be of setting the primary key in the project
> table to include the customer number as well, thus allowing the same
> project name/number to be used across multiple customers.

You would not be able to have projects which are not associated with
cutomers.  If you want to do this, use a UNIQUE constraint instead.
The primary key is actually an internal id.  Projectnumber is a UNIQUE
index.

The major difference is that UNIQUE indexes allow for NULLs in indexed
fields.  With a primary key, you cannot do this because it introduces
the possibility of ambiguity in referenced keys.

>  Or perhaps
> modifying the code to append the customer number to the project number
> to make it unique.  In my case, I'd like to set up a monthly project to
> collect time for each customer so that I can bill on a monthly basis --
> 102007 works well for October, 2007 billing but I can only use it once
> in the current system, which leaves me manually appending some other
> unique identifier to accommodate each customer.  Is there some other way
> to do this that I'm missing?

I would think that changing the unique index would be sufficient, but
this codebase is known for....  interesting side-effects of seemingly
straightforward changes (a problem we are working on aggressively).
>
> Time Cards:
>     - When I enter the basics (employee, proj. number, service code,
> desc, time in/out) and save, the time is calculated as
> 'Non-Chargeable'.  This seems odd as I would think it would go in as
> chargeable by default.  Is that easily changed?

What exactly are you entering into each field?  Maybe we should
suggest that we build in some logic to update instead of save in this
case.

>     - If I go back in to edit the time card and change the time from
> 'Non-Chargeable' to 'Chargeable', and then hit 'Update', it won't take
> the change... I have to save the card (and then get the warning that I'm
> saving over an existing entry).  So what does the Update button do exactly?

Calculates things like price, chargeable time, etc.  What is probably
happening is that by skipping the update, you are saving a timecard
with 0 chargeable hours.

>     - Is it possible to have the 'Chargeout rate' auto-populate based on
> the customer?  If I just leave it blank will the correct billing rate be
> put in based on the price matrix for the customer?

That is the intended design.

>     - When I enter a time card and then run a report, all the time cards
> show up as 'closed'.  How would I keep a time card open?  Why would I
> want/need a time card open/closed?

A timecard is open if it still has unallocated chargeable time on it.
If you have no chargeable time, it will be closed.

>
> Please feel free to redirect me as needed if I'm being stupid about any
> of this -- I don't want to waste your time answering questions that have
> already been answered elsewhere.  Just point me to the 'elsewhere' and
> I'll be just as happy.  :)


No such thing as stupid questions.  Questions like modifying code
probably do belong on the -devel lorum.  But as for the rest, you are
in the right place :-).
Best Wishes,
Chris Travers
>
> Thanks again.
>
> Regards
> Del
>
> Chris Travers wrote:
> > Just for the workflow:
> > Create projects and services
> > Enter time cards
> > Under Projects/Generate/Sales Orders, generate sales orders from your timecards.
> >
> > If you are having issues with things not showing up, please include in
> > the email the date format settings on the Preferences screen.   If
> > this is really happening, then we may need to look into it as a bug
> > report.
> >
> > If you skip those steps, you will find that you don't have any data to convert.
> >
> > Best Wishes,
> > Chris Travers
> >
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